In 1867 Samuel Young introduced into the Senate of West Virginia a bill to confer the suffrage on educated, taxpaying women, but it found no advocates except himself. In 1869 he presented a resolution asking Congress for a Sixteenth Amendment to enfranchise women, which received the votes of eight of the twenty-two senators.
No further step ever was taken in this direction until the spring of 1895, when Mrs. Annie L. Diggs of Kansas was sent into the State by the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation but reported that the question was too new to make any organization possible. In the fall Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer, arranged a two weeks" series of meetings with the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio as speaker, and several clubs were formed in the northern part of the State. A convention was called to meet in Grafton, November 25, 26, when an a.s.sociation was formed and the following board of officers was elected: President, Mrs.
Jessie C. Manley; vice-president, Harvey W. Harmer; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Annie Caldwell Boyd; recording secretary, Mrs. L. M.
Fay; treasurer, Mrs. K. H. De Woody; auditors, Mrs. M. Caswell and Mrs. Louise Harden.
The second convention was held at Fairmont in January, 1897, Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, a.s.sisting. Everything was so new that her presence and instruction were an inspiration and a help, without which it is doubtful whether the work would have continued. Officers were elected as follows: President. Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat; vice-president, Mrs. Mackie M.
Holbert; recording secretary, Mrs. Beulah Boyd Ritchie; auditors, Mrs.
Mary Long Parson and Mrs. Mary Butcher; member national executive committee, Mrs. Mary H. Grove. The corresponding secretary and the treasurer were re-elected.
In April, 1898, the annual meeting was held at Wheeling, in the Carroll Club Auditorium. Mrs. Chapman Catt and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National a.s.sociation, made addresses each afternoon and evening, and both filled the pulpit of the large Methodist Church on Sunday. All the officers were re-elected except the treasurer, who was succeeded by Miss J. B. Wilson.
The next convention took place at Fairmont in the fall of 1899, Mrs.
Chapman Catt again a.s.sisting to make it a success. The officers elected were: President, Mrs. Ritchie; vice-president, Mr. Harmer; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Clara Reinheimer; treasurer, Mrs. Holbert; auditors, Mrs. Georgia G. Clayton and Mrs. Belle McKinney; member national executive committee, Mrs.
Wheat; press superintendent, Mrs. Manley.
Prior to 1895, the subject of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women was practically unknown in West Virginia, but now there is no part of the State in which the injustice and ignominy of their disfranchis.e.m.e.nt has not been brought to the mind and conscience of the voters.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1897 the Legislature appointed a committee to draw up a new State const.i.tution, and the suffragists presented to it a pet.i.tion, signed by about 600 leading men and women, asking that the word "male" be omitted from the suffrage clause.
Individual appeals were made and literature sent to each member of the committee. Many signatures for the pet.i.tion were obtained at the State Fair, held in Wheeling, where room for a suffrage booth in the Manufacturer"s Building was given by the president of the board, Anton Reymann, while every other foot of s.p.a.ce was rented out at a large price. The booth was decorated with portraits of the leaders, Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and made as attractive as possible.
In 1899 the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw addressed a joint session of both Houses of the Legislature in behalf of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.
Her expenses were paid by the Fairmont suffrage club.[462] The lecture was a decided success, many members of the Legislature expressing themselves as favorable to the cause she advocated. The clause striking out the word "male" was not, however, reported from the committee, and the whole matter of a new const.i.tution eventually was dropped.[463]
By an Act of 1891, no child under 12 years of age, of either s.e.x, can be employed in any mine, factory or workshop.
By an Act of 1893 a married woman may carry on business in her own name, and her earnings and all property, real and personal, purchased by her with the proceeds of such earnings, is in all cases her sole and separate property and not subject to the control or disposal of her husband or liable for his debts. By another act of this year a married woman may sue and be sued in any court in her own name.
By an Act of 1895, a married woman may appoint an attorney in fact to execute any deed or other writing.
By an Act of 1899 employers are required to provide seats for female employes.
Dower and curtesy both obtain. The widower has a life interest in all his wife"s real estate, whether they have had children or not. The widow has a life interest in one-third of her husband"s real estate, if there are children living. If there are neither descendants nor kindred, the entire real estate of a husband or wife dying without a will goes to the survivor. If there are children living, the widow or widower has one-third of the personal property, and all of it if there are none. A homestead to the value of $1,000 is exempted for either.
If a child die possessed of property and without descendants or a will the father is heir to all of it; if he is dead, the mother inherits only an equal share with each of the remaining children. If both parents and all brothers and sisters are dead, the grandfather is the sole heir; he failing the grandmother shares equally with her surviving children.
The husband can convey his separate property without his wife"s signature. The wife can not sell or enc.u.mber her separate property without her husband"s consent.
The father is the legal guardian of the minor children. If a widow remarry the guardianship of the children of the first husband pa.s.ses to the second, and she can not even appoint a guardian at her death.
No married woman can be a guardian.
The husband is required to furnish support adequate to his property and position in life.
In 1897 the legal age of marriage for girls was raised from twelve to sixteen years.
The "age of protection" remains at 12 years. Formerly the penalty was death or, in the discretion of the jury, imprisonment for not less than seven nor more than twenty years. In 1891 it was enacted that it might be regarded as a felony and punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than ten years. Through the efforts of women bills to raise the age have been repeatedly introduced but always have been defeated.
SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.
OFFICE HOLDING: In 1887 Dr. Harriet B. Jones was appointed a.s.sistant hospital physician in the State insane asylum, with the same salary paid the men physicians. She was the first woman ever appointed to such a position in a State inst.i.tution in West Virginia. On her resignation she was succeeded by Dr. Luella F. Bullard, who still holds the office.
To the untiring energy of Dr. Jones is due the State Industrial Home for Girls. During two sessions of the Legislature she remained at the capital, entirely at her own expense and leaving a lucrative practice, to urge the need of this inst.i.tution. At length $10,000 were appropriated for this purpose in 1897 and $20,000 more in 1899. Now a girl committing a minor offense is no longer placed in jail or in the penitentiary while her brother for the same misdeed is sent to the Reform School. Dr. Jones was elected president and all the officers are women.
The State Home for Incurables also represents the work and ability of a woman, Mrs. Joseph Ruffner. Before the same Legislatures as Dr.
Jones, she appeared with a bill asking an appropriation, and by persistence secured one of $66,000. The home is now in successful operation with Mrs. Ruffner as president. The Governor is required to appoint boards composed equally of men and women for these two inst.i.tutions.
Women sit also on the boards of orphan asylums, day nurseries and homes for the friendless.
The Humane Society of Wheeling was organized in 1896 with Mrs. Harriet G. List as president. In 1899 she secured an appropriation of $3,000 from the Legislature to aid in its work.
A woman is librarian on the staff of the Agricultural Experiment Station. The board of education of Wheeling appoints the three librarians in the public library, which is supported from the school fund, and for several years all of these have been women.
In some parts of the State women are appointed examiners to decide on the fitness of applicants to teach in the public schools, but they can not sit on school boards.
Women can not serve as notaries public.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women except that of mining.
EDUCATION: All inst.i.tutions of learning are open to both s.e.xes alike.
Bethany College has admitted women for more than ten years, and four are on the faculty. In 1897 the State University was made co-educational, after much opposition. It has eight women on its faculty, and two of the three members of its library staff are women.
In the public schools there are 4,096 men and 2,712 women teachers. It is impossible to obtain the average salaries.
FOOTNOTES:
[461] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Annie Caldwell Boyd of Wheeling, who has been an officer continuously in the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation since it was organized.
[462] This club raised money by suppers, festivals and a Woman"s Exchange for use in the work. It subscribed for twenty-five copies of the _Woman"s Journal_ to be sent to the State University, to the six Normal Schools and to various individuals. It also offered $35 in prizes for the best orations on The Enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of Women, to be competed for by the students of the above schools.
[463] In the Legislature of 1901 a bill was introduced conferring on women the right to vote for Presidential electors, as this can be done by the legislators without a reference to the voters. The bill was drawn up by George E. Boyd, Sr. It was reported by the House Judiciary Committee, February 21, with the recommendation "that it do not pa.s.s."
Henry C. Hervey spoke strongly in its favor and was ably seconded by S. G. Smith, who closed by demanding the ayes and noes on the Speaker"s question, "Shall the bill be rejected?" The ayes were 31, noes 25, the bill being defeated by six votes. Speaker William G.
Wilson voted against it.
The bill was presented in the Senate by Nelson Whittaker, but U. S.
Senator Stephen B. Elkins came on from Washington and commanded that it be tabled, which was done.
CHAPTER LXXI.
WISCONSIN.[464]
As a Territory Wisconsin interested herself in equal rights. In the first Const.i.tutional Convention universal suffrage regardless of s.e.x or color had a considerable vote. In the second woman suffrage received a certain amount of favorable consideration. Early in the history of the State widows were made heirs of all the property in case of the death of the husband without children, and laws were pa.s.sed by which a life interest in the homestead was secured to the wife. In 1851 the regents of the State University declared that their plan "contemplated the admission of women," and in 1869 women were made eligible to all school offices.
The first Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation was organized in 1869 as a result of a large convention in Milwaukee, arranged by Dr. Laura Ross and Miss Lily Peckham, a bright young lawyer, and addressed by Mrs.